I think of myself as anti-trend but the 'look-through' decorating trick I keep seeing on Instagram really works

Home decorator Lara Winter is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on revamping a 200 year old cottage to make it right for modern family life. See the rest of her articles here.

Look, I’ll admit it: I’ve said before that I don’t really do trends. I like homes that feel personal, not like they’ve been copy-pasted from Pinterest. I don’t believe in design “rules” either. But as with all good rules, there’s always an exception.

Mine is something I call the Look-Through.

(Yes, I totally made that name up. But stay with me, it’s worth it.)

So, what is the Look-Through? I’ll try to explain, but maybe a story helps first.

I have this one friend, we’ll call her Kate. Every time I visit her house, I leave a little bit baffled. Not because it isn’t lovely (it is), but because every room feels like it belongs to a different house. You walk from a sleek, ultra-modern kitchen into a floral, vintage-style living room, and then into a maximalist, colour-soaked dining room. Each space is great. But together? It’s like interior design whiplash.

This is something I touched on in a recent article about creating flow and cohesion in your home. (Note to self: forward that to Kate.) But I left one thing out on purpose, because honestly, this idea deserves more than just a bullet point. It needs its own moment in the spotlight.

So, back to the Look-Through.

It’s that little visual moment when you’re in one room and you can already see a detail that connects it to the next. A repeated colour. A hint of a matching material. Something subtle, but intentional. A little visual breadcrumb trail from one space to another.

Let me show you what I mean.

In the image above is the hallway and bathroom in our home. They’re quite different spaces – blue striped wallpaper in the hallway, and cream-and-terracotta checkerboard tiles in the bathroom. But when I found a gorgeous caramel coloured curtain for the bathroom, I knew I had to use that colour elsewhere. So, I painted the hallway doorframe and dado rail in that same rich caramel tone.

It’s a small thing. But it completely changed how the two rooms relate to each other. That warm caramel hue links them. The hallway feels like it’s giving you a little sneak-peek of what’s coming next.

And once I started noticing these little “look-through” moments, I couldn’t stop.

Take this incredible shot from Jessica of @deorling_, above. She painted her doorframe and staircase a bold, joyful colour - and then echoed that colour in the artwork on the wall nearby, just in a slightly softer tone. Genius. That one move ties the whole space together.

Or Tahira’s place, at the top the page. She runs the instagram account @tahirashome, and she’s got this deep red doorframe, which you can see from the hallway. Then, right as you enter the next room with its beautiful blue stripey wallpaper - bam! - a picture frame in that exact same deep red. She also added a pretty cushion repeating that colour. It’s so simple, but it makes everything feel intentional.

Now, I find myself wandering through my home, standing in doorways, thinking: “What could I repeat here? What could I link?” It’s become a fun little design challenge - and the results are surprisingly impactful.

So, if you’re like me and feel allergic to following trends for the sake of it, consider making this one your exception too. It’s not about making every room look the same (please don’t). It’s about creating tiny threads of continuity. Repeating a colour, echoing a pattern, using contrast on purpose.

It doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. You can literally just paint a doorframe or add a cushion in a colour from the next room.

Just enough to make it feel like everything’s connected.

Because in the end, the best interiors aren’t the ones that follow all the rules. They’re the ones that feel like you - but on purpose.